John Linebaugh told me

[Scott Tschirhart]

That I only really needed one load for everything. He recommended 8 gr of 231 under any 250-260 grain cast bullet in a good ..45 Colt sixgun. It does equally well in a carbine.

[Bill in Oregon]

Fine shooting! Boy that Skinner sight sure looks handsome on your Marlin.

[Scott Tschirhart]

Comes to the eye as naturally as can be. A very comfortable carbine.

I have over 300 rounds through it now and we are getting along well.

[Bearskinner]

I was shooting a 255 grain PC bullet with 13.5 grains of HS-6 in my little carbine and revolver. The carbine needed a slightly lower front sight, which Andy graciously replaced at the range. I went fiber optic as well, as I can see it MUCH better than the bear buster f sight, even painting it white with bright green bands. Sweet shooting little levers. That was John’s mid range revolver load, safe in mountain guns, but still very effective.

[jeepnik]

I like that thought process. It's sort of my approach to reloading. I find a load that works and stick with that. Oh sometimes I'll find my go to load doesn't work well in a particular firearm and I have to try something different. But again once I find it I'm done. And I never found maximum, much less over maximum, loads necessary. Perhaps If Godzilla showed up at my door. But then I'd just grab some of the Garrett's for my 45-70. Why should I spend my time developing a round I will rarely use when someone else had done the work. Specialty rounds are expensive, but I use very, very few of them.

[Scott Tschirhart]

This is by no means a maximum load though it is a bit more than factory.

It’s safe in a post war SAA or 1866/1873 carbines.

Though the truth is that I could easily be happy with the Remington factory 255 grain load.

[.45colt]

I looked around and found this From John I had read years ago .
" I have personally taken about 10 antelope and 1 mule deer with a .45 Colt. My wife has taken around 6 antelope and 5 mule deer with her .45 Colt. She uses a 4 3/4" Seville and the handload is a 260 Keith cast at 900 fps. This load will shoot lengthwise of antelope and mule deer at 100 yards. In my estimation it kills as well as the .270, 30-06 class rifles if the shots are placed properly. If I were hunting heavier game I'd step up the velocity to 1200 fps and in extreme circumstances, (elk, hogs, bear) go to the 310 gr cast slug. This load, 310 at 1200 will go through elk like so much air. These loads can be managed by anyone who is serious about hand gunning big game. My wife is 5' 1" and goes about 100 lbs with her gun on. She likes the power the .45 gives her with a minimum of recoil and blast. She has hunted with me for 15 years now and is a very serious handgun shooter. I think the .45 Colt has a lot to do with this as it gives her big bore power without big bore recoil and blast. My sons also shoot the .45 Colt a lot and I had the pleasure to watch my oldest son at age 14 take a nice mule deer buck this year with a 5 1/2" Colt SAA at about 90 yards range. "

[High Desert Hunter]

Scott, when I was looking at buying my S&W Mountain Gun in 45 Colt, I called and talked to John twice. First time he talked about my the one 45 Colt load I used in everything, which was the 45-270SAA bullet on top of 8.5 grains of Unique. He told me that load would do for just about anything in North America with good shot placement. He then surprised me by telling me he mostly carried a S&W 45 Colt in grizzly country, and that he carried a 315gr SWC if memory serves loaded to 1150 FPS. My second call was because I wanted to make sure I had heard him correctly, and he went into the whole N Frame being chambered in 44 Magnum, and that the 45 Colt was able to be loaded to 80% of the 44 Mag. I have never run any heavy bullets through my Mountain Gun, no need given I don't face charging grizzlies in New Mexico, but my standard 8.5 grain load has worked very well. That 8.5 grains of Unique is now 10.5 grains of Longshot which essentially duplicates the velocities. The new load works in all of my 45 Colts, and a slightly heavier charge with the same bullet in 454 Brass is very close in accuracy to the Unique load I was using in my Freedom Arms. I've found the 44s and 45s to be exceptionally easy to load for, much easier than my 480 which took a little work to get a good accurate bullet and powder combo to work. I'm very pleased to hear you're having good success with your new carbine, they sure do feel good in the hands.

Dave

[Pisgah]

As much as I respect the gentleman, I must disagree. It should be 8.2 grains...